Cannabidiol and Older Adult Cannabis Users

Cannabis use increased 10 fold among adults over the age of 65 between 2014 and 2016 but very little data exists on the extent of their harmful effects on health and behavior. The overarching goal of this project is to test a novel harm reduction strategy in which older individuals who seek to use cannabis for pain, anxiety or mood problems (depression/anxiety) will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions in an 8 week randomized controlled trial: hemp-derived CBD+THC, hemp-derived CBD-THC, or placebo. This work has the ability to directly inform individual choices regarding the use of cannabis products among older adults, and direct policy decisions regulating cannabis formulations on the legal market.